Policing functions - Research Paper Example

The agencies have separate agendas, motives and responsibilities and they follow separate protocols but all operate with the main aim of attaining the objective of providing security and peace to the US society. In US there are different roles of different policing agencies which they conduct at their own level and these roles have a major impact on the overall society of US. Body The primary and the most basic function of all policing agencies are to ensure that the laws are enforced, offenders are brought to justice, crime is prevented, peace and discipline is preserved and they even operate to provide various other services to the society of US.

Several of the functions carried out by the law enforcement agencies tend to coexist and are similar in nature. For example: While policing officials try to maintain order within the society, they may conduct arrests of those individuals who are indulged in anti-social behavior. The ultimate aim of all policing agencies is to deter crime from occurring in future. Policing Functions and Evolution There are various policing organizations that operate at the federal level, these organizations include: the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) (Pollock, 2012, p.90). FBI happens to hold a premier position and it is involved in the process of obtaining and providing facts as well as evidence for cases that are taken fall in the constituency of federal jurisdiction.

According to the mission statement provided by FBI, its main functions are to safeguard the region of United States against threats that are terrorizing in nature and threats that may be poised by international intelligence. They even conduct the function of upholding and enforcing laws that are created to fight crime in the region of US and they even provide services to fight crime at the local, state and the federal level and to provide similar services to foreign partners. The FBI has evolved over the years since its inception, before the attacks that took place during the period of 1993 as well as 1995; the agency was unaware of terrorist plots that were being created at the national and the international level against the US.

After these incidences, the organization expanded and several offices of the organization were created throughout the US and started providing educational services in the field of law enforcement to both local and international communities. For example: during the period of 1994, the organization assisted in the creation of ILEA (The International Law Enforcement Academy) (FBI, 2013). Later due to the 9/11 bombings on the World Trade Center buildings and other government buildings resulted in changing the structure of FBI (Walker, 2011, p.526). Due to this even the USA patriot Act was enacted to assist FBI by increasing their power to fight terrorist activities (FBI, 2013).

During the period of 2007, further changes were made to FBI as new procedures were created for the field officers of the organization so terrorism could be countered in an effective and efficient manner. Another level at which policing in US operates is the state level of policing. In state level of policing each state have a separate police department and these police departments along with their officers have control over the entire state. Police at the state level are required to conduct investigations that are